The Beersheba District Court on Wednesday sentenced the four men indicted for the alleged abduction of Rabbi Nir Ben-Artzi, head of the "Talmei Geula "non-profit organization, to five months of community service each, after finding them guilty of fraudulently obtaining benefits.
The conviction was obtained as part of a plea bargain struck between the defense and the prosecution, which did not leave much of the original indictment that included multiple counts of abduction ,extortion and fraud.
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According to the amended indictment, the four – Shmuel Shukron, Zvi Weizmann, Shimon Katorza and Micha Petito – targeted Ben-Artzi after he began questioning their financial activities on behalf of the non-profit organization.
- Rabbi Nir Ben-Artzi in court (Photo: Herzel Yosef)
Their menacing of the rabbi stretched across three years, but the prosecution eventually opted to plead the case out in order to secure a conviction.
The court accepted the plea, sentencing each defendant to five months of community service andordering each of them to pay the rabbi NIS 10,000 (roughly $2,700) in compensation.